Brendon McCullum has reinforced his status as one of the world’s best Twenty20 cricketers by being recognised as New Zealand’s \Most Valuable Player in international Twenty20 cricket this summer.
The international MVP rankings included matches from the Zimbabwe tour through to the match at Eden Park on Wednesday night.
McCullum’s all round contribution to the team ensured he held off the in form Martin Guptill from securing an unprecedented International and Domestic T20 MVP double.
With only 1.18 points between the two players it was McCullum’s ability to contribute to the team as wicketkeeper that ultimately led to the stand in captain winning the T20I MVP honour.
McCullum started the season for the Blackcaps with an impressive T20I tour of Zimbabwe where he registered his top score of 81 not out in the opening T20I match. The dynamic opening batter racked up 252 runs from 175 deliveries in the shortest format to end with an impressive average of 42.00 at a strike rate of 1.44. The MVP measures a player’s total contribution to their team and the additional points McCullum accrued in the field and as captain ensured he is recognised as the Most Valuable Player this summer.
Martin Guptill has been in stellar form with the bat and dynamic in the field for the BLACKCAPS all season. In the end Guptill was the easy winner in the batting category of the MVP with an impressive 79.91 MVP points. These points were earned by scoring 349 runs form 245 deliveries, with a top score of 91 not out, an average of 87.25 at a strike rate, marginally below second placed batter Brendon McCullum, at 1.42.
With the BLACKCAPS winning five of their seven T20I matches the bowlers played a large part in the success of the team. Nathan McCullum showed how competitive their family is in this format by easily securing the MVP award for bowling over second placed Tim Southee. Bowlers are often at the mercy of the willow in the T20 format, but McCullum is one of a number of players reinforcing the prominent role the slower bowlers are claiming in this format of the game. With 8 wickets at 15.25, and a good RPO of 7.17 it is easy to see why Nathan is the only bowler to have been selected in each of the Blackcaps seven T20I matches.
